WRC Promoter has confirmed that the publishing of games based on the FIA World Rally Championship will return to French publisher NACON. The agreement covers the development and publishing of the official WRC games and eSports competitions, granting NACON exclusive rights for PC and consoles for six seasons, from 2027 through 2032.

As part of this strategic partnership, NACON will begin development of an all-new WRC game series, aiming to deliver an immersive experience that faithfully reflects the reality of the championship and meets the expectations of both rally enthusiasts and new players. The games will feature the official rallies, vehicles, teams, drivers, and sponsors among the many anticipated content elements. This project represents a complete reboot of the franchise, based on an entirely fresh vision, and marks an ambitious new chapter in the brand's development.

Not long after announcing an "end of the road" for World Rally Championship (WRC) franchise development, Electronic Arts (EA) reportedly implemented an unspecified number of layoffs at Codemasters. This long-running British racing game specialist became a fully EA-owned property just over five years ago. Since then, the studio continued work on the F1 franchise—in addition, teams also branched off into the making of well-known EA racing IPs: Grid and WRC. On forums and social media, (non-Codemasters) EA staffers indicated that colleagues had lost their jobs. Video Games Chronicle reached out to the publisher, for comment on last week's conditions. On April 29, the American video game company announced the cutting of hundreds of roles, and the cancelation of unannounced projects.

In a statement issued to VGC, an EA spokesperson explained: "as a business, we are constantly evolving to meet the growing needs of our players and driving greater focus across our portfolio. This has led us to look at reducing some roles, while we redeploy as many as possible against our strategic priorities." As reported earlier this year, the company tends to "reshuffle" its development staff following the completion of projects. It is not clear how much of the internal setup at Codemasters has been re-jigged, but an EA Racing franchise social media manager provided a little bit of insight. In a past weekend forum post, they posited that: "there's a lot of talent up for grabs now—the audio and vehicle art teams were some of the best in the business; and any game with cars in it should tap them up." Criterion could be an ideal location for transfers, but this Surrey, UK-based studio's focus has been redirected to non-racing IPs.

Dear Rally Community, every great journey eventually finds its finish line, and today, we announce that we've reached the end of the road working on WRC. After releasing EA SPORTS WRC in 2023, the 2024 season, including the recently released Hard Chargers Content pack, will be our last expansion. For now, we are pausing development plans on future rally titles. Rest assured, EA SPORTS WRC will continue to be available for existing and new players. We hope it remains a source of joy, excitement, and the thrill of rally racing. We've poured our hearts into making it for fans, and we know you'll keep the passion alive.

Our WRC partnership was a culmination of sorts for our Codemasters journey with off-road racing, spanning decades through titles like Colin McRae Rally, and DiRT. We've provided a home for every rally enthusiast, striving tirelessly to push the boundaries and deliver the exhilarating thrill of driving on the ragged edge. We've brought together incredibly talented racing developers, worked with some of the sport's icons, and had the opportunity to share our love of rallying. Thank you to all the fans who have and continue to be part of our rally journey.

• The Codemasters WRC Team

EA is the proud home to some of the biggest, most exciting interactive entertainment experiences on the planet. Experiences that bring people together every day, offering hundreds of millions of players and fans around the globe new ways to play, create, watch, and connect in, around, and beyond our games. Nothing ruins that fun as fast as cheating. That's why we are excited to introduce EA Javelin Anticheat—the evolution of our flagship anticheat solution, which prevents, identifies, and addresses bad experiences wherever possible, and is a pivotal part of our defense-in-depth strategy. Since its initial launch in 2022, our anticheat solution has supported over 28 million PC players with fair play in over 2.2 billion PC gaming sessions across our largest franchises including EA SPORTS FC, EA SPORTS Madden NFL, Battlefield, F1, EA SPORTS WRC, and Plants vs. Zombies.

The EA Javelin Anticheat brand was carefully chosen to communicate the core attributes of the solution: defense, strength, and agility. One where millions of players and fans around the globe can trust to ensure the integrity of EA games is preserved, allowing for fun-and fair-interactive entertainment. "Our mission is to foster a gaming environment where skill and sportsmanship are the only paths to victory. EA Javelin Anticheat is a testament to our commitment to fair play and integrity."—Elise Murphy, Head of Game Security.

This week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Jusant, RIPOUT, RoboCop: Rogue City, and The Talos Principle 2 all launch with day-one support for DLSS 3, giving GeForce RTX 40 Series gamers the fastest frame rates possible at the highest settings and resolutions.

Additionally, RIPOUT just entered Early Access with DLSS 3, Desynced is adding support for DLSS 3 in the near future, EA SPORTS WRC launches this week with DLSS 2, and NVIDIA Omniverse has just added support for DLSS 3.5 and Ray Reconstruction. This bumper selection of anticipated releases follow last week's launch of Alan Wake 2, featuring full ray tracing, DLSS 3.5, Ray Reconstruction, and NVIDIA Reflex.

The wait is almost over. We are days away from the launch of EA Sports WRC, the biggest rally game Codemasters has made to date. EA Sports WRC is out November 3, let's go through everything you need to know before the big day. Jump straight into the action as soon as the game launches. Pre-load on the dates below.

November 3, the worldwide launch of EA SPORTS WRC at 04:00am UTC across all platforms. Get into the game earlier by, pre-ordering the digital version for up to 3 days early access starting on October 31 at 07:00 UTC across all platforms and EA Play Pro.

Intel has released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, version 101.4900 Beta, which brings Game On Driver support on Intel Arc A-series Graphics for Alan Wake 2, Cities: Skylines 2, WRC, and Ghostrunner 2 games. New drivers do not fix any issues or bugs, so it will still have some issues in games like Starfield.

In terms of performance, and compared to the 101.4887 drivers, these will bring up to a 20 percent average performance uplift at 1080p and high settings and up to a 22 percent average performance increase at 1440p and medium settings in the upcoming Alan Wake 2 game which launches on October 27th. It also increases the average FPS by up to 34 percent at 1080p with high settings and up to 26 percent at 1440p with medium settings in Cities Skylines 2 (DX11), which launches today, October 24th.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4900 Beta

Following up from the first EA SPORTS WRC deep dive that shared details on gameplay features, we're excited to share more information on what players can experience when the game releases on November 3 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via EA App, Epic Store, and Steam. Our second deep dive goes into detail on Career, Moments, Multiplayer, and more in EA SPORTS WRC. Breaking it down is Molly Pettit, broadcaster and journalist for WRC.

Career
Career is a core WRC experience, where players will aim to lead their team to victory against the world's best rally drivers, cars, and teams. The first choice will be in deciding where on the WRC ladder to start their first season from. Want to build up a legacy across multiple classes? Then begin a journey with Junior WRC, as the Rally3 cars are a great entry point for new players. Alternatively, players can start in WRC 2, or even jump straight in at the deep-end with the Rally1 cars in the top class of competition. Following the initial class selection, players will then begin the process of creating their very own rally team. This starts with the team branding, including name and colours, before meeting the Chief Engineer and Benefactor.

Electronic Arts is excited to introduce EA SPORTS WRC, the official game of the FIA World Rally Championship coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via EA App, Epic Store, and Steam on November 3, 2023. Developed by the team behind the critically acclaimed DiRT Rally series, with over 25 years of off-road videogame heritage, EA SPORTS WRC is a truly next-generation rally game and the quintessential title for sim-racing enthusiasts.

Ross Gowing, Senior Creative Director at Codemasters: "EA SPORTS WRC is the purest form of motorsport where every stage is a fight against the clock, the terrain, and yourself. This is the rally game we've always wanted to make, combining our studio's deep knowledge and expertise with the power of the official WRC license representing the pinnacle of rally motorsport."